Market Research App with Screen Recording - iOS & Android
Native Android and iOS apps that turn a research participant's phone into the fieldwork tool: text, photo, video, screen-recording and poll assignments, captured on the spot and uploaded in the background.
01 / The Challenge
Qualitative fieldwork only works if the participant actually finishes
Kix runs invitation-only research studies where participants complete remote tasks over days, in their own homes, on their own phones. The hard part is not showing a question, it is everything around it: a participant filming a three-minute video on patchy mobile data, a study that branches based on the last answer, a consent form that has to be read and signed before any data is collected, and a global panel that does not all read English. Every one of those is a point where someone abandons the study and the research loses a data point.
Video and screen-recording answers are large files, and a failed upload on mobile data means a lost response and a participant who will not re-record
Studies branch, the next question depends on the last answer, so the app could not ship a fixed, pre-loaded question list
Some tasks require capturing what happens on the participant's own screen, with narration, which each platform only permits through its own tightly restricted screen-capture APIs
Consent is a compliance requirement, not a checkbox: participants must read a release form and sign it before contributing
Panels are recruited worldwide, so the interface had to be readable by participants who do not speak English
02 / Here is What We Did
Fully native on both platforms, built around the upload rather than around the form
We built Kix natively on each platform, in Java on Android and Swift on iOS, so we could get directly at the screen capture, media recording and background execution APIs that a cross-platform layer makes awkward. Both apps talk to the same Kix API, and the design decision that shaped the rest was treating media upload as its own long-running job rather than something a screen waits on.
Uploads are handed to WorkManager, so a participant can leave the screen, lock the phone or lose signal mid-video and the answer still lands.
Onboarding, Consent & Language
Built OTP email sign-in, participant profile and photo setup, a language picker covering 36 locales applied before the first screen, and a consent flow that renders the release form PDF in-app and captures a real drawn signature.
Assignments & Branching Questions
Wired project lists into a per-project assignment view grouped by Today, Tomorrow and Remaining, then a question engine driven by a next-question endpoint so branching studies resolve server-side and answers can be edited after submission.
Capture & Resilient Upload
Added photo, video and screen-recording capture, the last through a foreground MediaProjection service with a floating timer and mic capture, then moved every media upload onto WorkManager with a streaming request body that reports real byte-level progress into a notification.
03 / Features
Five task types, one participant flow
Five assignment types in one flow, open text, photo, video, screen recording and polls, each with its own capture screen but a shared submit-and-continue rhythm so the study never feels like five different apps.
Screen-recording tasks run through a foreground MediaProjection service with a draggable floating timer overlay and microphone capture, letting participants narrate what they are doing on their own screen.
Background uploads via WorkManager with a custom streaming request body, so video answers survive a locked screen or a backgrounded app and report true byte-level progress in a notification rather than a fake spinner.
Server-driven branching: each answer calls a next-question endpoint that returns the following question and its type, so multi-branch studies are reconfigured by researchers without an app release.
In-app consent, the release form PDF is rendered through a bundled PDF viewer module and signed with a real drawn signature that uploads as an image, keeping the compliance step inside the study.
Assignments grouped into Today, Tomorrow and Remaining, so a participant in a multi-day diary study sees what is due now rather than a flat backlog.
36 selectable in-app languages with Play App Bundle language splits, so a global panel reads the study in its own language without inflating the download.
Answer editing after submission, network-loss detection with a blocking dialog, and Firebase Crashlytics and Analytics for stability and drop-off visibility across the study.
04 / Technologies
A fully native stack on both platforms, chosen for media capture
05 / Results & Impact
Shipped as a production research instrument
“Kix helps you take part in exclusive market research studies that shape the future of products, services, and brands, complete engaging remote tasks anytime, anywhere.”
Kix Data Limited
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